VAM is proud to share a collaborative partnership with the Vancouver Bach Children’s Chorus, and to be the chosen rehearsal space for the majority of VBCC’s choral ensembles. In keeping with this linkage, VAM offers singing lessons for children with the conductor of the VBCC Chorales, Kathleen Allan. Ms. Allan has quickly made an enviable reputation as a composer, conductor, soprano, and is in great demand as a soloist and new music specialist regularly performing in premieres of new vocal and choral works. Her recent recital, featuring premieres of new vocal music as well as performances of her own works, received national media attention and was featured on CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. Kathleen has a particular passion for renewing Newfoundland folk songs in choral arrangements, and her commissioned interpretation of The Maid on the Shore was performed in Argentina in Summer 2011 at the World Symposium on Choral Music. She has received two Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Awards for her compositions, and in 2006 won CBC’s national composition contest in honour of Mozart’s 250th birthday. Her choral works can be found in the catalogues of Alliance Music Publications, Inc. (Houston, TX) and Cypress Choral Music Publishing (Vancouver, BC). She holds a degree in composition from the University of British Columbia, where she studied with Dorothy Chang and Stephen Chatman.